After a gritty, hard-earned win over No. 18 Kentucky, No.
4 Texas women’s basketball walked off the court Monday night with more than just another top-25 victory. Behind the final buzzer and the box score, there was a moment that spoke volumes about the deeper connections in the game - a postgame exchange between two veteran coaches who’ve built more than just programs.
Kentucky head coach Kenny Brooks didn’t spend his press conference dissecting the loss or lamenting missed opportunities. Instead, he shifted the spotlight to Texas head coach Vic Schaefer - not just for the team he’s built in Austin, but for the way he carries himself beyond the court.
“He said we played really hard,” Brooks shared, reflecting on their extended handshake. “And coming from someone like him - I respect Vic as much as or more than anybody in the country.
The way he does things, he does it the right way. He speaks up for the right things.
He’s fair.”
That mutual respect runs deep. Both Brooks and Schaefer are fixtures in the women’s college basketball world, with decades of experience and Final Four appearances on their résumés. They’ve helped shape the sport’s growth, not just through wins and banners, but through the cultures they’ve built - competitive, yes, but also rooted in family and values.
For Brooks, that connection is personal. His daughter, Gabby, is a junior guard at Kentucky.
Two years ago, she played for him at Virginia Tech. Coaching your own child is a unique challenge - it’s a balancing act between parent and coach, between nurturing and pushing.
And in navigating that, Brooks found inspiration in Schaefer’s path.
Schaefer’s daughter, Blair, played for him during Mississippi State’s back-to-back national championship game runs in 2017 and 2018. Now, she’s on his staff at Texas as an assistant coach. Brooks remembers watching those Mississippi State teams and seeing Blair not just as a player, but as a key part of a family-centered program that still chased greatness.
“The best years of my coaching career have been when I’ve had my family around my group,” Brooks said. “And I learned that from him.”
But Monday night’s conversation between the two coaches went beyond basketball and even beyond family ties on the court. Schaefer asked about Brooks’ wife, Chrissy - a gesture that meant more than any compliment about Xs and Os.
Chrissy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. The past two years have brought plenty of challenges for the Brooks family - a new job, a new city, and the pressure of rebuilding a program in Lexington. But last February, they got the news they’d been hoping for: Chrissy was cancer-free.
That context added weight to a simple question from one coach to another. It wasn’t about game plans or recruiting classes. It was about people.
“As far as coach Brooks, I think he’s a hell of a coach,” Schaefer said. “He’s won everywhere he’s been.
He did a great job at Virginia Tech, and now he’s doing it at Kentucky. I just have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a man and as a coach.
And (knowing) his wife (is) a cancer survivor, I’m really happy for her and happy for him and his family.”
In a sport where competition is fierce and the margins are razor-thin, moments like this remind us that the relationships behind the scenes often run deeper than the final score. For Schaefer and Brooks, Monday night was about more than a top-25 showdown - it was a shared understanding between two coaches who’ve built their careers on more than just wins.